Teenage Michael Gove supported Labour

Michael Gove, the new Education Secretary, campaigned for the Labour Party
during his teenage years, his parents have revealed.

Ernest and Christine Gove said they were extremely proud of their adopted son’s place in David Cameron’s Cabinet, despite both being long-term Labour voters.

The senior Mr Gove said his son started getting interested in politics as a young boy and vowed to “get a job where it’ll cost you money to speak to me”.

“The funny thing is he went door-to-door canvassing for Labour, posting leaflets and chatting to people,” Mr Gove, of Aberdeen, said.

“We never really argued too much about politics but Michael and my father would have some heated debates. I think it was Oxford (University) where he really became politically minded.”

Mrs Gove, 71, added: “He always said he wanted to be Education Secretary. I’m just over the moon he has achieved his goals. I’m just so proud of him.”

The couple, who adopted the 42-year-old MP for Surrey Heath when he was four months old, recalled that he was a voracious reader during childhood.

In 1979, aged 11, he won a scholarship to Robert Gordon’s School in Aberdeen, where he spent the next seven years excelling in every subject, except sport.

“When he had finished all his school work, he would more or less revert to reading his encyclopedia,” Mrs Gove said.

“His teachers told us they used Michael to educate the other pupils. They said they’d love to be able to tell Michael he had got something wrong but they were never able to catch him out.”

Her son was a keen debater, first at school then at Oxford University, where he competed in the world debating championships.

The senior Mr Gove, who worked in the family fish business at Aberdeen harbour, said it was clear early on that his son was not destined to follow in his footsteps.

“He hated the smell and gutting the fish, so I asked him what he was going to do with his life,” Mr Gove said.

“He said, ‘I’m going to get a job where it’ll cost you money to speak to me’.”

The MP’s parents had thought their son would become a church minister but after graduating he returned to Aberdeen to start work on a local newspaper.

Mr Gove joined other striking journalists on the picket lines during a bitter dispute but did not have to wait long to be offered a job by David Dimbleby on Radio Four’s Today programme. He later became assistant editor at The Times then an MP.

The couple recalled how Mrs Gove’s mother on her deathbed told their young son that he would become Prime Minister “if you stick with your lessons”.